Monday, August 23, 2021

The Dragon has been awakened!

Some months after the Spring of 68, Sidney Morganbesser was called for jury duty, and as luck would have it, he was tapped for a case involving alleged police brutality. During the voir dire, the Assistant District Attorney assigned to try the case asked Sidney whether he had ever been treated brutally or unfairly by the police. Sidney thought for a moment and said, ‘Brutally, yes. Unfairly, no.’ The ADA asked him to explain, and Sidney told the story of the attack by the Tactical Patrol Force, at Columbia University. ‘And you didn’t think they were acting unfairly?’ ‘No,’ Sidney said, ‘they were hitting everybody.
—Robert Paul Wolff


Former 7:30 host Kerry O’Brien alarmed by Australia’s authoritarian drift



An Old Hacker's Tips On Staying Employed


Consultancy Capitalism Is Allowing Private Firms to Control Public Funds Jacobin


Would Extinction Be Such A Bad Thing?

Since we are considering whether extinction might be better than continuing to exist, the question arises whether some pains could be so great that they outweigh any number of pleasures and other goods. - New Statesman

Top Stories  
AARP releases “Consumer fraud in America: The Black Experience”

  • One in five have lost money
  • More than half of victims have also been victims of another scam
  • Most common are government imposters, lottery and work from home scams
The fastest growth in fraud is among those under 21 says new study
 
Tip of the week:  An alert reader reports that Marriott Reward points are being stolen and used.  This may be due to a series of data breaches the company experienced.  So this is a reminder to check your reward point accounts and frequent flyer miles from time to time so make sure someone hasn’t been stealing the awards you’ve earned.
 
BBB Studies. Here are links to some of the study topics: puppy fraudtech support fraudromance fraud money mulesapartment rentalcrooked moversgovernment impostersonline vehicle sale scamsrental fraud and gift cards.
 
Coronavirus 
Fraud News Around the worldHumor FTC and CFPB  Virus Benefit TheftBusiness Email compromise fraud (read BBB study)Social MediaRansomware Bitcoin and cryptocurrencyIRS and tax frauds Jamaica and Lottery Fraud (read BBB lottery fraud study)Romance Fraud and Sextortion (read BBB romance fraud study)

The Hill of Shame

Not that hillA People’s Architecture, Owen Hatherley on Elain Harwood’s new book Mid-Century Britain, a plaintive, puzzled cry of loss for ‘a new world that was light, optimistic and without angst, a carefree vision of a society devoted to public welfare’ / meanwhile. ‘Pick-up trucks are ridiculous clown cars and 99% of the people who buy them will never have a practical need to own one.’ See also American Trucks And SUVs Have Gotten As Big As WWII Tanks / feed me art, someone Asks. The results are worth adding to your lists: The Art Showcase, plenty of contemporary fantasy art; Austin Kleon, an artist and blogger; Olena Shmahalo, an artist; Contemporary Art Curator, a magazine; Lines and Colors, a blog about art; The Near-Sighted MonkeyGurney Journey; the excellent Public Domain ReviewArt Show; speaking of loss: Buried in concrete: how the mafia made a killing from the destruction of Italy’s south. You can wander around the abandoned villas of Sicily at Liotrum. The text is rather romantic and less than informative, but you can draw your own conclusions: Villa Corradina. Here is a Domus article on Pizzo Sella, the ‘hill of shame’, one million square metres ‘anthropised by a combination of mafia, large-scale construction and corrupt politics’ / School with Jomon pottery, an urbex at Wanderlast / the cars of San Francisco, photographs by Christopher Last / Happy birthday to us. Does anyone still use tumblr?